Robin Thicke Biography
Thicke was born to vocalist Gloria Loring and Canadian entertainer Alan Thicke (best known for his role on the sitcom Growing Pains). At a young age, Thicke showed an interest in music and has often cited classic soul singers like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder as his influences. He credits his dad's musical tastes, for it was he who motivated Thicke to immerse himself in all kinds of pop music. The elder Thicke is popular for writing the theme songs for The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes, so naturally Thicke had his head in music.
Always carrying a heavy heart, Robin taught himself to play piano at the age of twelve so he could have an outlet to express himself. By the age of fourteen, he could play anything he heard on the radio. At sixteen, with no formal training, Robin began professionally writing and producing music for recording artists like Brandy and Brian McKnight.
At the ages of 12 and 13, Thicke was a guest actor on several episodes of The Wonder Years and Growing Pains. He decided to pursue a music career at the age of sixteen, Thicke became a friend to the president of Uptown Records, Andre Harrell, and struck a deal with the fledgling Nu America Records, a subsidiary of Interscope Records.
He was an average student; by 13, he was writing songs. Three years later, he befriended the president of Bad Boy Entertainment, André Harrell, and struck a deal with Interscope. Thicke began writing hits for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Mya, Brandy, Marc Anthony, and Jordan Knight. Thicke also penned a wide range of hits for pop artists such as Jordan Knight, writing and co-producing an extensive share of his self-titled album, Usher, Christina Aguilera, Mya, Brandy, Michael Jackson and Marc Anthony. In 2005 Thicke won his first Grammy award for his collaborations on Usher's 2004 release Confessions. He is married to actress Paula Patton, who is pictured on the cover of his A Beautiful World album. Still, an artist in the making was dying for his own chance. By 2000, Thicke, who was in his mid-twenties, made his dream come true.
In 2000, Robin, who simply went by his last name Thicke, went to work on material for his debut album, initially entitled Cherry Blue Skies. The album focused more on blue-eyed soul, than his pop-offerings for other artists.
In 2002, Thicke released his debut single "When I Get You Alone". The track sampled Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven", which itself sampled Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The music video for the song featured an unshaven Thicke, with long, grungy hair, as a night courier racing through the streets of Manhattan on a bicycle. It received some rotation on MTV2 and BET's Rated Next and was spun moderately on urban radio. Globally, however, "When I Get You Alone" became a chart success when it peaked within the top 20 in Australia, Belgium, and Italy, and reached the top ten of the singles charts in New Zealand and the Netherlands.
The moderate success was enough to signal the release of the album, with its name changed to A Beautiful World. Despite the release of a second single, "Brand New Jones", the album received very little promotion, and debuted at a low number 152 on the Billboard 200, eventually selling 59,000 copies domestically.[1] However, the album generally attracted a positive reception from music critics, with some comparing it to Jamiroquai, and Lenny Kravitz.
In 2005, Thicke performed as a guest on the remix of Will Smith's international hit, "Switch". After being signed to The Neptunes label, Star Trak, he began working on his sophomore album entitled The Evolution of Robin Thicke. The first single, "Wanna Love U Girl", featured producer Pharrell and experienced chart success on urban radio in the United Kingdom. For the video, Thicke changed his appearance, cutting off his trademark long hair. In 2006, a remix version of the song was filmed with rapper Busta Rhymes.
The Evolution of Robin Thicke (in stores Oct. 3rd/US) is the second solo album from the critically acclaimed, Grammy award winning songwriter and producer. The album is a timeless work of art with a voice of purity, passion and soulfulness. Robin brings to life the stories and emotions of the last two years of his life. Admittedly, those two years have been a tumultuous ride of ups and downs filled with incandescent magic. It is an album that tells the tales of love, loss, temptation, redemption and finding hope when all the odds are against you. "My greatest desire with this album was to write songs that were completely honest and sing them with the emotion I was feeling when I wrote them, so that whoever listens to my music is brought as close to my experiences and life as possible." With this intention, Robin's second U.S. single, "Lost Without U" is about Robin's insecurities and his need to be desired and loved. With sweeping vocals over rhythmic Spanish guitar, this song takes you away and makes you sing along.
With album sales over 1.6 million copies sold domestically after the re-release as a Deluxe Edition (with three new bonus tracks) on February 13, 2007, The Evolution of Robin Thicke has become a commercial success in the United States. The album has currently peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, garnering Thicke his first R&B number one album of his career. From February 24, 2007 to March 3, 2007 the single "Lost Without U" and album The Evolution of Robin Thicke simultaneously spent two consecutive weeks at number one on the R&B singles and albums charts respectively. On the March 3, 2007 issue of Billboard magazine, Thicke simultaneously topped four Billboard charts; Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, and Hot Adult R&B Airplay.
In March 2007, The Evolution of Robin Thicke was certified Platinum by the RIAA. Thicke and his record label Interscope soon considered potential tracks to be released as the album's next and third single. Thicke's preference was the track "Can U Believe", which has since peaked at number thirty on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It was unlikely "Got 2 Be Down" would be a single as Faith Evans is pregnant even though the song has already began airplay.
His second single, the ballad "Lost Without U" began getting a lot of radio airplay in Urban & Rhythmic stations towards the end of 2006 and early 2007. With the assistance of radio airplay the song has reached as high as number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100, and number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. "Lost Without U" became Thicke's first number one hit on the R&B singles chart and he became the first white male artist since George Michael to top the chart. He appears in the music video of this single with his wife, actress Paula Patton. The video is currently on Big Ten rotation on MTV, where it is also a Discover and Download artist. The song has also been remixed by Boston's Termanology.
The song "When I Get You Alone" was performed by contestant Blake Lewis during the 2007 season of American Idol.
In April 2007, Thicke co-wrote a song with Mexican-American singer Angela Via called "Wrong For You", a single from Via's upcoming album Ready To Fly.
Singer/songwriter Robin Thicke was one of the few to define the new millennium's blue-eyed soul movement. His creamy California skin and sapphire blue eyes were equally charming, but Thicke has merit. He has a soulful disposition similar to Remy Shand, but mix that with the funk of Jamiroquai and you have Thicke's sultry R&B sound.
Sources: robinthicke.com, vh1.com, wikipedia.org, starpulse.com.